Maddie's K-pop blog on Tumblr

[koganbot]

I just discovered My First Love Story, a Tumblr whose author, Maddie, describes the blog's objectives as: "My ideas about/analyses of K-pop in relation to feminism, the music industry (both North American and Korean), and the portrayal of Asian femininity in media (both North American and Korean). Continued exploration of my diminished and/or burgeoning identity as a Korean/Chinese-Canadian woman who has never visited the country my mother came from over 40 years ago. Relations between K-pop and above exploration. Songs that I'm obsessed with. Pictures of idols that I'm obsessed with."

If you're like me (that's about three of you), you have now instantly bookmarked that blog and are this moment reading it, or are about to. For one thing, a lot about the look of the girl teen idols will make most of us immediately go "PROBLEMATIC PROBLEMATIC" but I, for one, feel way too ignorant of Korea or K-pop to think I have anything knowledgeable to say on the subject (which of course doesn't stop me from trying). So someone who knows and loves the music but doesn't duck the problems has my immediate esteem.

On that subject, I recommend that you go read anhh's heartfelt disaffection: "To be honest, lately I can't stand K-pop. I still consume it on the same way: enjoy the music (music videos, albums, etc.) you can enjoy, avoid the rest (fans, media, the propaganda). To be fair, I don't think that you can separate one from the other. Some of the things I like about K-pop (the belief that a song can be an event and/or can change your life, how this treatment applied on the producer side can make a song you don't care about something that you never want to get out of it, etc.) go hand in hand with the propaganda side of it." And on.

I'd say that the K-pop convos are the best to have occurred on my livejournal over the last year, thanks mostly to anhh and Mat, and since the conversations often will extend for days or weeks on a particular thread I urge you to periodically click my K-pop tag and revisit the threads (some of these being commentary on quarterly or year-end lists, with the K-pop content being rudimentary in my original post and only really developing down in the comments).

Back to Maddie's blog, a theme that's developing is that if you're Asian or Asian American in North America, Asianness will become an issue whether you want it to or not, and any attempt to break the Korean groups here will have to take this into account. I'll add a corollary, though, which is that if part of someone's heritage is black, everything changes, and the Asianness may even go unnoticed.

[EDIT: Add "or Latin American" after black in the previous sentence, or you can make it "black or Latin American or even though you've got no Latin American ancestry you played someone with a Latina name in High School Musical."]

Comments

[askbask.livejournal.com]

I think I've stumbled across a post on that blog before, but I read all of them now and really enjoyed it. Bookmarked.

There aren't that many places where I feel I can read fully formed opinions on the subject. (There are good ones about sociology, sexuality and gender issues in Korean media, like The Grand Narrative, but without the love for the music.)

[askbask.livejournal.com]

Although some of the more specialized fan communities can provide it, but you have to wade through comment sections to find the good stuff.

[petronia.livejournal.com]

I saw a good link to a Kpop essay I couldn't access while I was in Shanghai. Will find it for you, though you may have seen it already.

[troisroyaumes]

On a certain level, I think I agree with anhh, at least with regard to the mass production of idol bands that have been flooding the market. I mean, I love watching the MVs, but there's a lot about the way they're marketed, the plasticky interchangeable look of the band members that's off-putting.

But idol bands are definitely not the entirety of K-pop:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GRW30RCkLtE

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4yfvWl0f870

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5e-q0VQ5-h4

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iuxsQwGAsOk

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m9RHk1XXuJQ

Less polished without the same production machinery behind them, obviously.

[koganbot]

One hypothesis I have is that the idol machinery in Korea and Japan has more in common with how athletes are developed in the U.S. than with how one becomes a pop musician here. And one analogy might be that, though the athletes are willing, enthusiastic participants, most will never make it big, and will get exploited terribly (at least the ones in the major spectator sports like football and basketball), though of course there are counterarguments, that the participation in sports is good in itself, teaches teamwork and application, and that the scholarships etc. help the athletes attain an education, if they want one.

I love American football, but I watch with the uneasy sense that many of the people who play the game are getting permanently hurt by it.

[troisroyaumes]

That analogy makes a lot of sense to me.

[(Anonymous)]

I don’t know for sure, but always thought that the idol industry in Korea is based on the Chaebol system (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chaebol), vertically integrated enterprises that manufacture each of the components of their products to become more competitive, so they recruit, train, make debut, etc. idols, from a young age, etc. (http://www.sm-academy.com). But less or more I think they are career oriented, if you are going to be a singer, most likely is that that is what you would become, even if later you become actor or a TV host. I’m not sure if in Japan is that way. I think that Hello! Project could resemble that type of industrial structure but is not the same. AKB has Research Students, you learn songs, choreography and the rest and when some member is absent from a stage show they fill their place. Maybe they are promoted to become official members, but not necessarily (the group has been going for 4-5 years and they are already by the 11th generation). Other groups lack that training system, you become a member, you learn what you have to do. And others, well, this is Stardust Entertainment talent page, Momoiro Clover’s management agency. (http://www.stardust.co.jp/section3/) Oshima Yuko, from AKB48, has been working since she was a baby (think she was in some advertisement when she was one), and she has done works of almost every type, child actor, U-15 idol, singer (on different groups before AKB). Other girls there were already photo models, tried to join other groups, tried to be gravure idols and the rest. The girls in Momoiro Clover also are models for magazines, some of the girls in (the really really scary) Karen Girls are now in (the also really scary) Sakura Gakuin (but their first single, still unpublished (starts at 4:02) is amazing), etc.

[askbask.livejournal.com]

Earlier this month:

The Korean government has put out a few standards regarding the excessive exposure that underage celebrities are put through.

The Ministry of Gender Equality and Family presented a security measure for protecting underage celebrities against sexual pressure, as well as promoting education rights and fair career opportunities. It was a collaborative effort with the Ministry of Culture, Sports, Tourism, the Korea Communications Commission, and the Fair Trade Commission.

And later the same month the youngest member of the young k-pop group GP Basic was actually barred from performing. as a result of the new regulations.

That they're beginning to put into effect laws and rules to protect young entertainers against ruthless hours under unfair contracts, ensuring the right to school time etc, is good, but stopping young entertainers from performing on music shows, well... what would Willow Smith say?

[askbask.livejournal.com]

And so the rest of the group dedicate their performance to her! Bizarre!

[koganbot]

Not necessarily bizarre, that they'll dedicate a song to a departing member; I mean, they can't pretend that it didn't happen, that she wasn't banned. I don't know the context well enough to know if there's the implication that the girls think the ban was bad or stupid (or are implying by the dedication that this is what they think, anyway), but might this be possible?

[askbask.livejournal.com]

Maybe not bizarre, but she's still in the group, just not performing on these shows, so doing a song about it and releasing it as a single feels like an odd piece of meta artistry!

Just so this post isn't completely useless, proof of the continuing legacy of M2M in Asia http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fha3Aig_Fd0 (as the fanbases overlap, this video of the original is now filled with comments about the new Korean version http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pPIC7gJIW8I)

[koganbot]

Since the YouTube vid Mat linked to got killed, here's another one, Orange Caramel's version of M2M's "The Day You Went Away." Here it's in Chinese (they also do Korean):

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[askbask.livejournal.com]

I'll add a corollary, though, which is that if part of someone's heritage is black, everything changes, and the Asianness may even go unnoticed.

This rings true for me, as I didn't know Amerie was half Korean until way after I'd bought my first album of hers. It seems her recent visit to Korea and colloboration with 4Minute, and perhaps increasing web awareness of k-pop has influenced her.. on her new single Outside Your Body she makes use of her mother's language and sings '같이 가요' ("let's go together") as part of the chorus.

[koganbot]

There's a teenager I've met several times here whom I'd classified as "black," and it wasn't until the third time I saw her, and she said, "I'm part Korean," that I even noticed; I looked and said to myself, "Of course." The thing is, this conversation took place shortly after I'd been part of the discussion of Asian presence on the Hot 100 over on the Singles Jukebox, so you'd think I'd have been primed to be aware of this very thing, yet I didn't see it at all until she told me.

OK, I'm not the most observant person in the world, but I do think I'm representative of North American Caucasians in this particular blindness.

[askbask.livejournal.com]

You talked about a possible trend of latin sounds...



This song sounds like a huge hit in my opinion. The sort of song that could do well outside of Korea.

[askbask.livejournal.com]

Over on Ilx dayo asked "is this current phase of k-pop running out of steam?" My reply:

Well yeah, 2009 was a peak year and set so many milestones that 2010 has ended up as a "well, shall we try to do that again?" year. A very attentive global WWW audience has worked with the same zealous force as Bieber fans in pushing videos to the 'most viewed' section of Youtube and artists to Twitter TT, and we've seen a successful move into Japan and a potentially lucrative future. But the music has felt less eventful than the stories. Meanwhile, those who have actually taken different paths have silently found a bigger success -- group member gone solo Ga-In, who was cheeky enough to take some control herself and put out a record with an oddly fully-fledged tango pop sound, did a lot better than her company expected and reached #1. Secret went the Rich Harrison-route, a sound no one else is doing in k-pop now, and took off, despite a low-key media presence. Countless new rookie groups who have copied others with a lot of attention given to them, meanwhile, have failed sales-wise. That should be a wake-up call.

Prospects: Big Bang is coming back, partly this december and fully in February. They're increasingly self-made, songwriting and producing much of the material themselves now and with the rest of the YG artists represent a more feel-good view of the k-pop industry. Koreas (potential) Taylor Swift (credit: me) IU is coming back in a WEEK and I have no idea what it will sound like, but if it isn't guitar-driven and if she hasn't been given a chance at songwriting herself (obviously something she can do as per her cover arrangements) I might give up on the industry. God knows she's got the potential to single-handedly change it and inspire a flood of self-made girls/ labels giving them a chance, because every little 'featuring' she's had on a song this year has made it reach #1. She's definitely one of the most valuable assets for the industry.

I think that's where it needs to go: Stronger personalities and characters, not another girl group made of long-legged models with 10 members who don't even have the dance/vocal skills we always knew we'd get in k-pop (Nine Muses) - and I do love k-pop girl groups. But there's a reason the buyers prefer 2NE1, or Taeyang, or this year's "Korean Idol" winners. And I do think it's where they will go, because the industry's turnaround rate is pretty impressive. It's only a few years ago when girl groups were all out of fashion.

[askbask.livejournal.com]

And by 'Taylor Swift' what I meant was clearly not the music, but a young woman who should be able to sell more than anyone else, on her own terms.

[askbask.livejournal.com]

Billboard suggest SNSD "may target Europe later in 2011. There aren't yet any plans for a North American release." Not sure if it's based on a label statement, but it sounds like it.

http://www.billboard.com/news/korea-s-girls-generation-snsd-ready-to-storm-1004133665.story#/news/korea-s-girls-generation-snsd-ready-to-storm-1004133665.story

[askbask.livejournal.com]

One more thing. IU's album is out, and while she didn't get to compose she did try her hand at lyrics, and she is just 17, so I won't complain. There's plenty of time ahead of her to take full control (of which she's expressed explicit ambitions). I really like the album, especially the lead single,



which feels a little Abba-inspired, but with a Korean sensibility to the melody and a great long note at the end, the RnB track, and this folksy melody.

[askbask.livejournal.com]

Use this video instead http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZYeUl_DKodY

[koganbot]

So yes, my personal shopper does happen to be a parrot. What of it?

[Later] Excuse me, you seem inadvertently to have left your parrot in my gift shop, so I am personally returning it to your home at midnight.

[askbask.livejournal.com]

'And you won't see me again.'

She could've played the first encounter a little more suavely-- the parrot saying 'I love you' doesn't mean she's used it as a Cupid voodoo doll on the shopkeeper.

[koganbot]

Posted the video over on poptimists:

http://community.livejournal.com/poptimists/793519.html

[askbask.livejournal.com]

Frank, are you in the know about the finer details of how Billboard do their year-end sales lists?

"YEAR END CHARTS Hot Singles Sales" with WonderGirls at a, to me, shockingly high #31: http://www.billboard.biz/bbbiz/charts/yearendcharts/chart_display.jsp?f=Hot+Singles+Sales&g=Year-end+Singles

I can't say I've ever heard of New Hollow and this list is just confusing.

[askbask.livejournal.com]

It appears this is about the largely extinct physical single format.

[koganbot]

New Hollow are a teen rock band with a marketing tie-in and a mediocre by-the-numbers power pop track, "SiCK," that was only a minor hit (peaked at 86 on the Hot 100, which is ten spots lower than the Wonder Girls reached) but that in its first week sold 28,000 physical copies at Justice, a girls' clothing store. The lyrics are appropriately callow.